If you live with chronic migraine, you know that even with the best treatments, it’s nearly impossible to totally put the brakes on migraine attacks. But there are helpful self-care practices you can do to reduce the frequency and severity of migraine attacks — and to live your best life even with chronic migraine.
“As much as we may want to avoid them, more migraine attacks are going to happen,” says William Young, MD, a neurologist at Jefferson Headache Center and professor of neurology at Thomas Jefferson University. “Self-care can make an enormous difference in a life with chronic migraine disease.”
Self-care is a proven way to get relief from migraine attacks. It also helps you function better and improve your quality of life. But, there’s no one thing that works for everyone or for every migraine attack, Young says. That’s why building a self-care menu — a collection of different self-care practices and resources — can empower you to find the most effective ways to feel your best on any given day.
Creating a Self-Care Menu
People use self-care menus, or toolkits of different self-care practices and resources, to improve their mental, physical, or emotional well-being. You can pick and choose from them to take care of specific health goals or challenges, including chronic migraine.
A self-care menu is a ready-to-go tool that’s available when you need it, whether you feel a migraine attack coming on, want to boost your prevention strategies, or just want to feel a little better in your daily life. You can choose from different self-care practices, depending on your needs and how you’re feeling that day. It’s kind of like how you might pick a salad from a food menu one night and a cheeseburger on another.
“Self-care is such an important thing with migraines, and adjusting one’s lifestyle modifications are a must to help you feel your best,” says Fred Cohen, MD, a headache specialist and assistant professor of medicine and neurology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “But, it’s different for everyone, and there’s no right or wrong answer," Cohen says. "It’s about working with your doctor to identify the best outlets and practices for you.”
Personalize Your Self-Care Menu
To get started, make a list of different self-care practices that you know work for you (use a prompt like, “I felt good after I…” or “My migraine symptoms felt better after I…”). You can also discuss this exercise with your doctor and add things they recommend to your list.
When Young works with his patients, he suggests they think about the aspects of their lives that are most important to them. This helps them brainstorm different strategies that could help them reduce disruptions from migraine attacks and ensure they’re able to keep doing the things they love. Then they consider how different self-care practices and daily habits could help them meet their goals, including sleep, nutrition, stress management, mood, exercise, and social engagement.
This could be a great exercise to help you build your self-care menu. Think about what’s most important to you, then consider the self-care practices that help you function and feel your best so you can do that thing. This could be hanging out with friends, completing your tasks at work, or being able to do your favorite hobbies.
You can create your self-care menu by hand by making a collage or writing a list in a notebook. Or you could use your phone or computer to build a digital self-care menu on your Notes app or a Word document.
Pick a good spot for it so you can easily find it when you need it. You can place it on your fridge or a bulletin board over your desk. Once your self-care menu is made, you can use it to pick and choose from personal self-care practices as you need them.
To help you build your self-care menu, here are some self-care practices that can help you live a better life with chronic migraine.
Keep Comfort Items for Migraines Handy
Certain comfort items, such as eye masks and warm baths, can help relieve symptoms when a migraine attack hits. Many comfort items can also soothe you and help you feel better any day of the week, whether you get a migraine attack or not.
Here are a few ideas for your self-care menu:
Eye masks and blackout curtains. If you feel sensitive to light, especially when you’re in the middle of a migraine attack, you’re not alone. Around 80% of people who experience migraine attacks are more sensitive to light. Comfort items that help block or reduce light, such as eye masks and blackout curtains, can help ease discomfort caused by light.
Ice packs, cold compresses, and ice caps. Ice packs and cold compresses can help numb pain during a migraine attack.
Heating pads, warm showers, warm baths, and hot packs. Heat can help tense muscles relax and give you relief during a migraine attack.
Earplugs or noise-canceling headphones. People with chronic migraine may also feel more sensitive to sound. Earplugs or other earwear can help block aggravating or triggering pain.
Massage. Massage tools can also help relax your tense muscles and relieve some pain during a migraine attack.
Green light therapy (LED bulbs, lamps, glasses, or goggles). Green light can reduce the number of headache days you experience in a month and relieve symptoms caused by migraine attacks. It has to be in the right intensity, frequency, and exposure time and method to work, so chat with your doctor about finding the right green light device for you.
Weighted blankets. Weighted blankets can be calming and help reduce dizziness or vertigo.
Enjoy Comfort Foods and Beverages
Food can cause a lot of stress if you live with chronic migraine, Young says. This is because most people want to pinpoint their exact triggers when it comes to nutrition. But this can be hard to do. He also finds that his patients often blame themselves for their food choices when they get a migraine attack. But many migraine flares are random and not connected to food, and many people he works with won’t find meaningful food triggers beyond some major ones, such as too much wine, he says.
He tells his patients to make sure they’re still finding joy in food and not letting chronic migraine steal that from them. Instead, he recommends making choices that can help them feel better or bring a bit of comfort when a migraine attack hits.
Some foods or beverages that can help include:
Caffeine. Caffeine can offer pain relief during the early stages of a migraine attack. It can also help enhance the effects of an over-the-counter pain reliever. But too much caffeine can be bad for migraine attacks, so talk with your doctor about finding the right balance if you have issues.
Brain-healthy and anti-inflammatory diets. This includes Mediterranean-style diets, which consist of fruits, vegetables, fish, and nuts, especially broccoli, kale, avocados, almonds, and whole grains.
Brain-healthy and anti-inflammatory nutrients. Antioxidants, including vitamin C or E, B vitamins, and omega-3 fatty acids are important.
Comfort foods. If a certain kind of food or drink helps you feel better, go ahead and have that thing without overthinking it, Cohen says. Just do it in moderation if your comfort food is Diet Coke or a McDonald’s cheeseburger.
Water and electrolytes. Because dehydration can be linked to migraine attacks, staying hydrated can help.
Regular and consistent meals. Fasting can increase the chance of a migraine, so try to stick with a regular schedule for meals. Meal prep or grocery delivery could help ensure you have easy and nourishing food on hand.
If you are trying to identify food triggers, Cohen recommends eliminating one type of food at a time. Don’t stop eating too many foods at once because you won’t actually know what’s causing issues, he says.
Practice Emotional and Mental Care
“Because stress is such a factor in migraine attacks, finding a good outlet to help you decompress can make a big difference,” Cohen says.
Some things to consider for decompressing:
- Yoga
- Meditation
- A comfort television show (preferably one that doesn’t make you think too much)
- Pilates
- Acupuncture, which can also reduce the frequency and severity of migraine attacks
- Mindfulness exercises
- Journaling
- Relaxing hobbies, such as painting, knitting, or baking
If you’re living with chronic migraine, it may be helpful to get support with managing the mental and emotional challenges of chronic disease, as things such as anxiety and depression can fuel migraine attacks. You can get help through:
Therapy. Work with a therapist or other mental health professional. Therapy can help you address anxiety and depression, both of which lead to migraine attacks, and other challenging emotions from living with chronic migraine.
Support groups. Most people who live with chronic migraine can benefit from extra support, Young says. He recommends finding a support group so you can build community with people who understand what you’re going through. Support groups are available both in-person and online.
Develop Healthy Habits
In addition to making a self-care menu, there are many things you can do in your daily life to improve your quality of life and limit migraine attacks.
Sleep. Poor sleep can trigger and worsen migraine attacks. If your sleep could use some work, try to build better sleep habits. You can create a sleep schedule (try to wake up and fall asleep at consistent times), limit screen time, alcohol, and caffeine before bed, maintain a relaxing bedtime routine (read, listen to calm music, drink soothing tea, take a warm bath), meditate or practice deep breaths, keep daytime naps to a minimum, build a restful environment in your bedroom (think dark, cool, and quiet), and reduce stressful discussions or thoughts before bed.
Exercise. “Getting almost any kind of exercise can make a big difference,” Young says. He recommends finding a way to move three days a week, though any movement will be helpful, and even one day of physical activity is better than nothing. Some options include walking, running, swimming, or cycling.
Reduce stress. Stress is often connected to migraine attacks, so finding ways to cut stress from your life can make a huge difference. Try to incorporate relaxation methods and breaks into your days, and manage your stressors. It’s also helpful to make sure you’re prioritizing things you love and enjoy.
Get outside. A vitamin D deficiency can contribute to migraine attacks. Soaking up some vitamin D, especially in the spring and winter, can help you manage chronic migraine.
Build a Migraine First Aid Kit
In addition to your usual treatments and self-care menu, you can build a first aid kit to soothe your major migraine symptoms and pain. Some recommendations include:
Contact lens case with two doses of your go-to migraine medicine. Young says many of his patients use this trick so they can easily carry their migraine medication. He says almost any medication or over-the-counter drug will fit in a contact lens case, which makes it a great and convenient option for keeping your preferred medication handy at all times.
Prescription medications. This includes any medications you take to stop or reduce migraine symptoms as soon as you feel a migraine attack coming on.
Over-the-counter painkillers. These can be ibuprofen, acetaminophen, or aspirin.
Anti-nausea medications. Nausea is a common symptom of migraine attacks, so it can be helpful to have anti-nausea medications on-hand.
Hard candies. Certain hard candies, such as ginger- or peppermint-flavored ones, can help reduce nausea for some people.
Topical pain relief. Things such as lidocaine, a local anesthetic, can help some people reduce migraine symptoms and pain. IcyHot, which uses a cooling sensation to numb pain and heating ingredients to relax tense muscles, can also help.
Update Your Self-Care Menu
Don’t stress about finishing your self-care menu today. In fact, it could be helpful to consider it a work in progress — something you revise as you figure out what works best for you.
A migraine journal can help you keep a record of the self-care practices that work best for you — or don’t work at all. You can also use it to help identify your individual triggers. And if you try something that’s not helpful, don’t get discouraged, Cohen says. Keep experimenting with new self-care practices to find the ones that do work.
“With chronic migraine, everyone is unique, and it’s important to remember that something that works well for someone else might not work for you,” Cohen says. “Exploring lifestyle modifications with the help of your doctor can help you find the best road for you.”
